Amnesty International denounces pandemic exacerbating inequalities and abuses in America | International

From north to south, America is home to 13% of the world’s population, but has recorded nearly half of all deaths from covid-19. Part of the most affected population belongs to marginalized populations, who do not have the opportunity to comply with the necessary preventive measures and who have seen their lives deteriorate even further since the spread of the coronavirus: last year, 22 new millions of people have fallen into poverty in this region. Amnesty International denounces that the pandemic has hit the most unequal region on the planet with particular harshness, exacerbating these differences, and has been used by some leaders to intensify their attacks on human rights.

“Women, refugees, migrants, inadequately protected health workers, indigenous peoples, blacks and other historically forgotten groups have suffered the worst effects of the pandemic,” Amnesty said in its report. The situation of human rights in the world.

With more than 54 million cases and 1.3 million deaths, America has become the epicenter of the pandemic and today faces a second wave that threatens to be equal to or more virulent than the first. Countries are rushing to vaccinate health workers, who remain at the forefront of the battle despite the many victims deplored: at least 10,558 workers in this sector in the region have died of covid-19 until March 5, 2021.

“Some leaders have responded to the pandemic with opportunism, denial and contempt for human rights. We cannot continue on the path that leads to disaster, repeating mistakes, ”says Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International Director for the Americas, by phone from Mexico.

Guevara Rosas points out that Amnesty has received complaints since the start of the pandemic from countries like El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Honduras, among others, where the population has been forced to “submit to forced quarantines in centers. states that did not respect health standards or physical distancing ”. The pandemic has also given more power to the security forces, denounced across the region for the increase in arbitrary detentions and the excessive use of force.

“Many times, governments present a false dilemma between protecting the right to health and exercising other rights,” replies Amnesty’s regional director of the isolation centers denounced by opponents and organizations. defense of human rights in the Argentine province of Formosa. “At such an exceptional moment, a great challenge is presented to the States. They have the possibility of limiting certain rights in order to safeguard the right to health or to life, but parallel crises cannot be created, human rights violations cannot be committed in the name of the pandemic ”, he continues.

Massive deportations

Other governments have used the pandemic as an excuse to pursue repressive policies. “US authorities summarily detained and deported nearly all asylum seekers at the US border with Mexico, and deported over half a million migrants and asylum seekers from March 2020 to February 2021 , including more than 13,000 unaccompanied children until November 2020, ”the report said.

Isolation in households decreed by governments around the world has also intensified violence against women and girls in this region. The organization argues that states have taken insufficient measures to protect victims of gender-based violence and calls for more prevention in the face of the second wave that is hitting more and more American countries.

The best response to the pandemic is collective, says Guevara Rosas. “Governments have favored individual responses to international cooperation and this has a very high cost for the region,” he said, denouncing the opacity of contracts signed by national authorities with pharmaceutical companies and the hoarding of vaccines by richest countries. “It is essential that states cooperate because it is the only way out of this pandemic which does not include borders,” he concludes.

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